Reel Excitement
by MaryKris
Summary: He was her star, she was his fan. Until someone else very special entered her life. AU, eventually Literati
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This idea has been stuck in my head for quite a while now and since I had a total writer's block at my other fanfic I decided to give it a try. I hope you like it and I would be happy about some reviews. This will, eventually become a Literati.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

**Reel Excitement **

When I was 8 years old, my favourite band was "Reel Excitement". I was just crazy about this band. I bought every cd and the walls in my room were plastered with posters of the four boys who had formed the band. I knew every song by heart and every time I watched a music video of one of their songs I started to squeal with joy.

My best friend Lane hated them. But it didn't stop me; maybe it made me love them even more. The Korean girl has always been obsessed with music, and she has a very good taste, but we always had little fights because she disliked my favourite band so much. But we made up every time, that's what a true friendship is all about, right? Accepting your friends how they are, even if you don't like every little feature.

My mother always sniggered at my little obsession, but she let me be, since I always have been good at school, and have always behaved good, well, at least she thinks I always behaved, but we'll get back to this later.

My mother had me when she was 16, I know, that's very young, but it's also very cool. She may be my mother, but is also my best friend, right next to Lane. Maybe a little bit over her, but almost not noticeable.

I think Luke was happy that it was so obvious what I liked, so he knew what to get me for my birthday and for Christmas. Luke owns a diner in my city, "Stars Hollow" and he serves the best coffee on the planet. My mother and I went there at least once a day, when I started college, at least ones a week. But I know she goes there without me a lot more often since I went to college. I know Luke and my mother are flirting a lot, they have been doing it since I can remember, but sadly enough they don't know it. Or they don't want to notice it, I don't know.

My father, Christopher Hayden, what can I tell you about him? He wanted to marry my mother when she was pregnant with me, but since she had to get to class she never answered his proposal. He wasn't in my life for a long time, but when I was about five he started visiting more often, at first it was once a month, then ones or twice a week. It all led up to the inevitable. He and my mother started dating again. They dated for a long time, at least in my naive six year old mind I thought one year was a very long time. They talked about getting married until one day my father didn't live with us anymore. He had just moved out and nobody told me why. Today I know he had cheated on my mother, a lot, but it has been too long ago to hate him now. Ok, maybe I'm mad at him for hurting my mother so badly, but if he didn't had done it, my life would have been very different. My mother hated my father a long time after that for what he did to her and I can't blame her for it. It hurt that they weren't speaking, and barely could be in the same room together, but I had acclimated to it. Anyway, my father had moved out, but still wanted to see me, and I wanted to see him since I didn't know what an asshole he had been, so I visited my father every second weekend in the month. My mother was okay with it, I liked my fathers apartment, so everything was fine. My father actually liked "Reel Excitement" and let me hear their songs so loud I often had a headache the next day.

I was only crazy about "Reel Excitement" for about a year, I don't know, maybe I just grew out of being so obsessed with a boy group, but it was probably the most significant year of my life. Since this year my life really has been real excitement. It was the year I decided to become an overseas correspondent and be like Christiane Amanpour, it was the year my mother began speaking with my father again, it was the year he had a new girlfriend and it was the year I met Mark.

But this here is not about "Reel Excitement", al least not about the band, and it's not about Mark either, or maybe, not all the time, but it's about me. Rory Gilmore, soon to be 21 years old, brown hair, blue eyes. A lot of people have told me I would have stunning blue eyes, but to me they are just blue. People also told me they would sparkle when I'm happy, and turn very dark when I'm angry, but I don't know about that either. All I know, they are blue and I also know I always blush when people say nice things about them. I used to do that very often, blushing I mean. When I was younger I just couldn't handle compliments. And the more compliments I got, the more flattered I became, the more I didn't know what to do. If that would have been different, I'm sure my life would have been a lot different.

When my father told me he had a girlfriend I wasn't surprised. He had dated for a couple of weeks, and I couldn't wait to meet this woman. Her name was Susan; she was blond, thin and giggled a lot. When I first met her I found this kind of stupid but I think she was just very nervous. I was her boyfriend's daughter after all and she wanted to make a good impression. I think when Dad first had met her kids he must've been nervous like hell. Yeah, you heard right, she has kids. One girl, Laura, she was six years old when I met her. She was, and still is very cute. She had thick brown hair, big brown eyes and kind of an attitude. She could be the sweetest thing, but only when she wanted to. And she wanted to be a bad girl. I still don't get her sometimes, but that's just Laura.

Susan also has a boy and his name is Mark. When I first met him I felt like someone had knocked me over with a baseball bat. Why you may ask? Because he looked exactly like the frontman of "Reel Excitement". And back then, when I was 8 years old and totally in love with this band, it was enough to immediately let me love Mark. Of course, since I was so young it was more like admiring him. He was my new star. Every time when I visited my father I wanted Susan to come over because I knew she would bring Mark. I always wanted to look good for him; I just wanted him to like me. Mark had blond hair, very light blond hair, and sort of blue-green eyes. His eyes sparkle a lot. He looked good; as good as a ten year old can look to an eight year old girl who thinks she has found her star.

I think it's very illogical that the less I was obsessed with "Reel Excitement", the more obsessed I became with Mark. For one year I probably was something very close to a stalker to him, and the best thing was that he didn't minded. He thought I was cute and his friends tolerated me, so I began to hang out with them. After a while I knew everything about Mark. I knew that his favourite food were Frosted Flakes, at every time of the day, I knew he hated peanuts but loved almonds, and that he preferred bitter chocolate over the sweet kind. I knew that he loved skating, but that he was better at ice-skating. I knew that he adored his little sister, but he always was careful I didn't get jealous. I was his new sister, and I was accepted. And I absolutely loved it.

So, what do you think, should I go on? If you want me to, you can leave a little review :-)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: Thank you for your reviews! It seems like none of you can imagine jess fitting into this fic, but I promise you, he will fit into it perfectly, although he won't show up until chapter 4. I hiope you like this chapter, and if you do, please leave a little review.

**Chapter 2**

For a long time every weekend I was at my father's apartment we just hung out, sometimes together with Laura, sometimes with his friends, and sometimes just the two of us. Today I think it's strange how a 10 year old boy could hang out with an 8 year old girl, but back then I just was extremely happy to have found something like this. When I was with them it was like I had a big and happy family. And that's something every little girls dreams of, right?

When I was about eleven, Dad and Susan decided to move in together. None of the kids did mind. After all we had been best friends for three years now. We were even more than friends. We were siblings. But we didn't fight as much as 'normal' siblings do. We just loved each other. My obsession for "Reel Excitement" had vanished long ago. The posters and cds now occupied a box in my closet, but my obsession for Mark just had grown a lot. His presence didn't intimidate me, but he so often gave me compliments, that I couldn't even talk to him any more, because I would only be able to splutter.

Their house was great. It was in Litchfield, and now I met with Mark and Laura every other day. I even had my own room there, and even if it was smaller than my room at home, it still was great. Although I often spent the night at Mark's or Laura's room or we all slept together in one room. Being so close to each other was special and Dad and Susan were ok with it, after all, we were all only kids.

At Mark's fourteenth birthday everything became different. At first he didn't officially invite me to his party. Of course I came anyway, since it was at the weekend I spent at their place, but I still wondered about it. We never got each other anything. I still don't know why, but I guess it just wasn't necessary. We didn't have to get each other present to know how much we cared. It was self-evident.

But at this weekend something was different. Ark still talked to me, but he didn't hug me, when I first saw him that weekend, he didn't ask me to help with the preparations for the party and he also didn't ask me to choose some music. Before that he had always trusted my music taste.

I went to Laura's room, something had to be wrong. As usual, I didn't knock and just opened the door.

"Hey Laura! Any idea what's wrong with Mark?" She was sitting in front of her mirror, finishing her make-up. It was senseless to tell her she was only ten and shouldn't be wearing make-up, we all knew that.

"Hey sis! What should be wrong with him, has he said anything mean to you?"

"No, he doesn't talk that much to me at all. It is like he's avoiding me." I sat down on her bed and shifted uncomfortably.

"Sorry, I really have no idea." She looked at me through the mirror.

"Never mind. So, are you going down for the party?"

"Yeah, in a couple of minutes, but I don't think I will stay long. Mark doesn't want his baby sister on his bad boy party too long" Laura rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you're next Birthday Party will be a Bad girl party!" I said laughing.

"Well, it's my calling to be a bad girl, you now that!"

"Sometimes I really think you're forgetting that you are ten years old."

"No, although I want to forget it."

I smiled at Laura sympathetic. "Well, I'm going downstairs. See you later!"

"Yeah, see you!"

I went downstairs, the party was in the garden, although it was autumn already it was still warm. When I went out onto the patio I immediately saw her. Blond, with green eyes, slim and cute. I had seen her before, when I was hanging out with Mark and his friends, but this time it was different. This girl was clinging to Mark's arm, smiling at him all the time. I think her name was Mandy, or Mindy, or something like that. At first I didn't feel anything. But then I became really jealous. Of course, back then I didn't know that feeling. I just felt the sudden pain in my stomach and the desire to throw up immediately. All I could do was going back into the house really quickly, but not quickly enough. I only managed to get to the nearest couch. Of course he had noticed me. And of course he came after me.

"Hey Rory, what's wrong?" He asked. What a question. He had been avoiding me the whole time because of her, and now he was asking me what's wrong. It made me want to vomit even more.

"Nothing, what should be wrong?" I asked in a tone that can only be described as bitchy as possible. He noticed, of course he noticed. Damn him for knowing me so well. He made me look up at him. I know I had tears in my eyes.

He looked down for a moment and then took my hand in his.

"I wanted to tell you about her. I really wanted to, but I didn't know when would be the right time, so I kept avoiding you. I know it was wrong not to tell you, I'm really sorry!" He sounded completely sincere, and it made me feel so bad. He denied it so much, and there I was, snapping at him. But I wasn't able to react differently.

"Well, why should you tell me. I mean, I'm only your sister, nothing more, right?"

When he didn't answer I stood up and headed for the stairs. "Say hi to Barbie for me." was all I managed to get out before I ran upstairs and shut myself in my room.

What I didn't hear, was Mark, who was still in front of the couch quietly saying "You know you're more than that"

All I could do was cry. Back then I didn't even know why. I couldn't have a crush on my brother. That would be so…, icky. Of course, he wasn't my brother, not even my step-brother, but we had known each other for too long now to be just friends. It was just too weird.

After that weekend I didn't visit my father for about three months. I just couldn't face Mark. Every time I came up with another excuse, sometimes it was school, or birthday I had to attend, or I had something planned with Lane. Mum just raised her eyebrows when she heard my lame excuses, but she didn't ask me about any thing. Today I know she wanted me to come to her, and it was possibly the best thing she could have done.

It was shortly before Christmas, when Dad invited me to celebrate New Year's Eve with them. But I just wasn't ready yet. I didn't want to see Mark, it would be so humiliating after what had happened at his birthday.

A few days after Dad's call Laura called me.

After talking about random things she finally asked me why I wasn't coming to Thanksgiving.

"You won't understand it." Was all I said.

"Yeah, I would. I might not be as mature as you are, but I'm definitely more mature than Mark!" There he was again, like he was tracking me.

"Sorry sis, but I can't tell you, maybe at some time, but not now." I still wasn't able to tell her, not even today. Although I know she knows everything what ever happened between me and Mark, I can't talk to her about it.

"But please, please, please, come to New Year's Eve. Mum and Chris are having a big party in the Garden, a lot of people will be there, but we're short of kids. I don't want to fall asleep before midnight because it's so boring." Laura really knew how to persuade people.

"I thought bad girls don't beg!"

"This is the exception. If they want someone to come over they are allowed to beg."

"That's the worst argument I've ever heard!"

"But you are coming, right?"

"Yeah, I'm coming." I sighed. I knew it would be hard to face him again.

But when I arrived at Dad's I found out all the excitement had been for nothing, since Mark was celebrating with his friends and his girlfriend's house. When Susan told me that, I felt the feeling coming back, I had when I first had seen the two of them together. Susan was going on and on how she loved Mandy and how Mark was behaving so nice when he was around her. I put on a fake smile and went to my room, otherwise I would have thrown up right there. At least I wouldn't have to see him.

The party really was totally boring. The only kid's that were there, except for Laura and me, were some babies, which were, either asleep or crying the whole time. Laura and I were sitting in the back of the Garden, when suddenly we saw Mark coming out onto the patio. He went to his mother and said something to her, I didn't know what, but after he was finished Susan hugged him real tight and looked at him sympathetically. He brushed her off, looking a little embarrassed, and then went onto the grass. That was the time he saw me. His body immediately stiffened and he looked like he didn't know if he should approach me or not. Next to me, Laura was babbling about something, but I didn't really listen.

"Hey, would you get us something to drink?" I asked her, still looking at Mark. Laura followed my look and raised her eyebrows questioning. I looked at her, my eyes pleading. "Please!"

"Ok, sure", she said unsure, but she got the message that she shouldn't come back for a couple of minutes.

When Laura stood up, Mark came closer to the bank I was sitting on. When he passed Laura, he stumbled a little bit, but eventually he sat down next to me.

"Hey" he only said, staring at his shoes.

"How's Barbie?" I know it was mean, but I couldn't control myself.

"Why are you so jealous?" I couldn't believe he was so blunt.

"I'm not!"

"Of course you are. I mean, I always knew that you had different feelings for me than you normally have for a brother, but I thought this would be over when I finally had a girlfriend."

"You can have as many girlfriends as you want, I don't care!" I stood up, I just wanted to get away from him, but he pulled me back on the bank.

"I missed you.", was all he said. It made me blush, like every time when he said nice things to me.

"Why did you miss me when you have Barbie?" I asked meek.

"Stop calling her Barbie, her name is Mandy. And I missed you because you are my little Rory." Before that he always had referred to me as his sister, but not at this night, this night I was his Rory.

"Do you still need your little Rory, when you have..Mandy?"

"Of course I do! You're my best friend! And I care about you, you know that!" He looked at his watch. "Come on, it's almost midnight!" Mark pulled me up and went to the pavilion in the back of the garden, pulling me with him. The pavilion was small, and you would almost miss it if you didn't know where it was. You couldn't see it from the patio, or any other part of the grade, until you stand right in front if it. There was a small table in the middle, and some comfortable chairs, with light green cushions around it.

"What are you doing?", I asked him excited. I didn't really want to know. He had captured me, my mind, everything. Whatever he would do now, I wouldn't protest, I wouldn't say anything against it, I just didn't care. It was just the two of us, in this small pavilion. Nothing else mattered. I heard the people on the patio shouting. "10…9…8..7..6…5..4..3..2..1.. Happy New Year!"

Mark had taken my hands in his and looked me in the eyes. I knew what would happen. I had seen it in movies, I had read about it, but nothing could ever compare to the real thing. He lowered his head and we closed our eyes. I felt his breath on my lips, and shortly before his lips met mine I still couldn't believe this would be happening. My first kiss. I had dreamed of it, and my dreams hadn't been a lot different from the real thing. It was totally romantic, even today I think it was the perfect first kiss. From this moment on everything was different.. We couldn't be brother and sister anymore, but we also couldn't be together. We didn't know what we actually could be, but at this moment neither of us cared, this moment was about us, and about nobody else.


	3. Chapter 3

I know, this chapter is insanely short, but it's only some kind of interlude, to get the story going, and I needed this part to be able to go on.

**Chapter 3**

Of course with the experience I have today I wouldn't call it a kiss. It was more lips touching than anything else and probably the most innocent thing. But back then it changed everything. I don't even know why anymore, and now I know how stupid I was, but back then, being barely twelve years old I really thought this was it. This was the real thing that would change my life forever. And in a way it did. After that none if Mark's girlfriends bothered me anymore. Because I knew, he would come back to me eventually. But I never could understand why he went on dating Barbies. I never thought that maybe he did it because they were the exact opposite of myself, blond and light headed. I still don't know if that was a good or a bad thing. Just like I still don't know if I ever was much more than a friend to him. I wasn't his sister anymore, that was for sure, I mean, gross, I couldn't be in love with my brother. And he never referred to me as his sister after that. Laura still was my little sis, and I never want to loose her like a sister, but Mark and I, we were just friends.

It went on like that, probably until I was fifteen. Mark was my best friend, and I believed I was in love with him, and he with me. He always gave me the feeling that I was something special though we never talked about any of it. I never told my mum about it either, all she knew was that I was getting along with my 'siblings' and she was happy about it. And why shouldn't she be. By that time she was head over heels in love with Luke and didn't think even about dad in any other way than 'dad', you know.

He and Susan never suspected anything either. Every time when I would sleep over at dad's house, I would wait until they both had gone to bed, and then I would go to Mark's room. We used to talk only, sometimes with a little peck on the cheek when I finally went to bed. But by the time I was fifteen we had progressed to full fledged make-out sessions. Even Laura didn't notice. At least I hope she didn't. She could never forgive me, and if she found out I couldn't forgive myself either. It was a huge betrayal of her trust in us being the perfect family. But then I thought I was the happiest person in the entire world. Little did I know that Mark wasn't as committed as I thought he would be.

Some time in the fall after my fifteenth birthday I visited my dad again. Nobody was home yet, so I let myself in and went to my room to unpack the things I had brought for the weekend. When I heard the front door being opened, I immediately went in the hall to say hi to dad, but then I heard voices, that clearly didn't belong to either Susan or my dad.

"And you're sure nobody's home?" A female voice. Squeaky.

"No, we're all alone. Come on, let's go to my room!" That was Mark, no doubt.

And then it made 'klick'. Mark was bringing a girl home. Mark was cheating on me with, I bet, yet another Barbie girl. He hadn't had an official girlfriend since our 'relationship' had deepened, so naturally I had assumed that he was faithful to me.

Slowly I stepped back into my room, closed the door and took a deep breath. It was enough, seriously enough. I decided, there and then, that I was done being his little, whatever I was to him. I didn't even know anymore what he was to me. We had never said anything about being together, let alone being exclusive. But I didn't want to find any explanations for his behaviour. He didn't deserve it. After making sure that they had gone into Mark's room I put my things back in my bag pack and, very silently, went out of my room to go back home. Hopefully Mark would miss me this weekend.

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Taking a sip from her coffee, Rory made a short break from typing. She was exhausted, but the black liquid had managed to keep her awake for the past hours. She only the realized that it was almost 4 o'clock in the morning. Yawning, she put the bare foot that she had tucked under her on the floor, shivering at the contact with the cold wood. Making sure she didn't make any noise she went to the bedroom and got a pair of socks from the cupboard, only to go back to the laptop she had sat at for the past 6 hours and continue her writing. Although she was extremely tired, she was determined to go on, when she heard the tapping of bare feet on the hardwood floor behind her. She felt a pair of lips lightly being pressed on the top of her head. Rory just tilted her head back and soon got a real kiss from the man behind her.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" she asked with a little guilt in her voice.

"No, I was already awake, just waiting for an excuse to get up." The man gave Rory a little smile. Glancing at the screen, where the cursor still was blinking after the word 'weekend' he asked "Where are you at?"

Rory looked back at what she had written, and a sad smile took over her before happy face. "The day I decided to stop being Mark's dirty little secret" she said without any emotion, or at least so it seemed.

"Then I'm gonna pop up soon, right?"

"Yeah.." Rory sounded like she was lost in her thoughts. Soon she snapped out of it though and shaking her head sharply she said "I think I wrote enough for today"

"Are you sure?"

Rory smiled at the concerned voice of her boyfriend. "Yes I'm sure. I'm going to bed now, and I think I'll skip my first lecture in the morning and just sleep for a while."

"You should, you look exhausted, beautiful, but still, exhausted"

Rory chuckled and took the man by his hand, tugging him behind her into the bedroom, where she immediately fell asleep in his strong arms. She would continue writing some other time. She knew she had to.


End file.
